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How FM treated taxpayers in 5 Budgets

It's a great year for Indian taxpayers. After decades, the I-T exemption limits have been hiked bringing cheer to millions of taxpayers across the country. The salaried class can now breathe easy and save more money.

Better compliance and rising tax collections have helped the government relax the tax slabs.

How has the FM treated the taxpayers from his first Budget in the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government in 2004 till 2008 and how has the government tax kitty grown in these years...

Budget 2004

The finance minister made the salaried class happy by raising the Income Tax exemption limit to Rs 100,000.

However, no changes were made in the tax slabs. Chidambaram said that everyone will file tax returns and anyone with an annual income of Rs 100,000 will have his tax automatically rebated. This took 1.4 crore tax assessees out of I-T net.

Tax collection in 2004-05

Income Tax mop up grew by over 16 per cent year-on-year to Rs 46,840 crore (Rs 468.4 billion) during the fiscal, but fell short of the revised estimate of Rs 50,929 crore (RS 509.29 billion).

Direct tax collection grew by about 26 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,30,151 crore (Rs 1301.5 billion) during 2004-05, but fell short of the revised targets for the financial year.

Direct tax collections during 2004-05 fell short of the revised estimate of Rs 1,33,929 crore (Rs 1,339.29 billion) due to fall in income-tax mop up, even as corporate tax collections were on target.

Corporate tax collection grew by over 31 per cent to Rs 83,311 crore (Rs 833.11 billion) during 2004-05 as compared to the levels during the previous year.

Also see: A bagful of goodies from Chidambaram

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